Registration now open for our national esports tournament!

Author: Harry Carr

Following the annoucement at Ukie’s AGM, we return with our third national esports tournament and we are delighted to announce that the competition once again features the popular game Overwatch® by Blizzard Entertainment. Last year’s tournament succeeded to reach over 2,000 students who participated as either players or as part of the school or college’s event management, social media, press and community team. Though for the first time ever, we are thrilled to announce that registration is now open to schools and colleges who are not part of the programme.

The Overwatch Digital Schoolhouse Esports Tournament is an immersive careers education experience. Our report of last year’s event revealed that taking part in esports not only improved skills and confidence, but sparked student’s interest in new subjects, job roles and opportunities in the video game industry. Furthermore, 82% of players said they were more likely to participate in other team sports as a result of taking part in Digital Schoolhouse’s esports tournament.

The initial school heats will begin 29 October 2018 and but registration is open until 30 November 2018. Schools and colleges will have until 28 February 2019 to complete this initial stage of the competition. The early bird entry fee of £249 (plus VAT) is valid until midnight of 31 October 2018. Thereafter, the registration fee is £499 (plus VAT).

Interested in your students being named the Digital Schoolhouse UK Esports Champion 2019? Register here

Following, the Regional Qualifiers will be hosted by Staffordshire University and Belong by GAME. Gfinity will be hosting the Grand Final Event, which will coincide with the London Games Festival in April 2019. During the school heats, students will take the mantle of live host’s and shoutcasters to guide participants and audience members through competition and the day’s agenda. At the knockout stages and live events, pro players will take the stage, including the delivery of inspirational talks by the industry professionals - of which you will be able to ‘mingle with the pros’, which is a good opportunity for the guests to talk one-to-one about careers.

All schools and colleges that register for the tournament will be given launch packs, which include lesson plans to help familiarise students with esports and video game industry careers, and of course, the chance to win 1st prize at the Grand Final in April 2019.

There will be a large amount of industry professionals from across different video game platforms who will support the students with expert knowledge of gaming tips, strategies and tactical advice to better the chances of them becoming Digital Schoolhouse’s UK Esports Champion 2019.

Shahneila Saeed, programme director for Digital Schoolhouse, said:

“We’re excited to see how this tournament progresses over the next few months. With the expansion of our registrations to schools and colleges, we aim to reach more students than ever. Our goal is to empower students with events like this to network, improve their teambuilding and problem-solving skills and ultimately have exposure to a wealth of careers available to them. They can’t aspire to roles they don’t know exist.”